Innholdsfortegnelse for 08/02/2022 i Amateur Photographer

This week we train our lenses on two of the most popular subjects for photographers, probably because they’re both so accessible to anyone and can be easily enjoyed in and around the home. Top bird photographer David Tipling shares his tips for getting great pictures of birds that you can find in your own garden or in local public gardens. Alternatively perhaps you’ll be inspired by some of the latest close-up and macro photography submitted to the team at CUPOTY, this time on the theme of pairs. We also talk to leading Magnum tog Jonas Bendiksen about his fascinating – and worrying – new project. If you’re looking to go mirrorless this year on a tight budget you could do considerably worse than choose the excellent Fujifilm X-T30 II, which…

RICOH has revealed the new Ricoh Theta X 360 camera, which now has an added 2.25-in colour touchscreen and a 46GB internal memory. The Ricoh Theta X runs Android, supports 5.7K video recording at 30fps and 11K/60MP stills images. An optional Lens Cap TL-3, designed to protect both camera lenses, is available. The CMOS image sensor, main processor and lens design have been renewed and, for the first time in the Ricoh Theta series, the camera is powered by an interchangeable battery. The separately sold Rechargeable Battery DB-110 can be used as a spare. You can purchase the Theta X from theta360.com for £899 from March.…

SAMYANG has announced the AF 135mm F1.8 FE telephoto lens that’s designed for use with full-frame Sony E-mount cameras but is also compatible with Sony’s APS-C format mirrorless cameras. The lens is a development of the 2015-released Samyang MF 135mm F2.0 ED UMC lens but with the addition of autofocus. The AF 135mm F1.8 FE lens is said to be ‘optimised for portraits, astrophotography, landscapes and video shooting’, and includes a Focus Lock Button, a Custom Switch and Samyang’s new Focus Range Limiter switch. The Focus Range Limiter operates in AF mode and has three settings. In the FULL setting, AF range is set between infinity and the minimum focus distance of 0.69m. In the 0.69m - 2m setting, AF range is set between 0.69m and 2m, suitable for close-ups.…

Photographing small garden birds in flight is challenging and you should expect plenty of near misses. I like to experiment with the direction of light. My West-facing garden allows me to shoot into the light. On this occasion I set up a feeder and a perch 2 metres apart. There was constant activity, allowing for lots of shots to be taken. After checking a number of pictures I was finding the left-hand part of the frame was often empty, creating dynamic tension within the picture. I felt that I needed some balance to the composition so I introduced a pot plant with a single stem to the set. The resulting pictures have a better balance to the composition because the plant on the left, I feel, helps to draw the…

The crops shown below are taken from the area outlined above in red There’s a standard sensitivity range of ISO 160 to ISO 12,800 available, with an additional LOW speed from ISO 80, albeit with a reduced dynamic range when using the lower settings. At the higher end, you can extend the sensitivity to ISO 25,600 and ISO 51,200. Noise options let you set High ISO noise reduction to +4, all the way to -3, with the default being 0. Shooting JPEG images, the default settings give excellent results, with usable images up to ISO 6400 or ISO 12,800. Above this you may want to resize your image or process the raw files to tune the noise reduction more finely.…

SIGMA’S 18-50mm F2.8 DC DN is, without doubt, one of the most attractive standard zooms available for APS-C mirrorless cameras. It provides a unique combination of impressive optical quality, large maximum aperture, compact size, and affordable price. Crucially, it doesn’t dwarf the small bodies that it’s most likely to be used on, either. This does, however, come with certain compromises, most obviously the lack of optical stabilisation. Unless you use a Sony A6500 or A6600, this means you have to keep shutter speeds high to avoid blur from camera shake, which can in turn mean hiking your ISOs at the cost of image noise. The 18mm wide end is also a little limited compared to the competition. So the Tamron 17-70mm f/2.8 remains the most versatile E-mount option if you…

Olympus Tough TG-6 ● £369 ● www.olympus.co.uk Olympus’s Tough compacts have habitually won our underwater camera group tests, and this latest model is still the best of its type. It’s waterproof to 15m, shockproof against a 2.4m drop, crushproof and freezeproof. The 25-100mm equivalent lens is paired with a 12MP sensor, and viewing is via a 3in LCD. This is also one of the few rugged cameras that can record raw files. Panasonic LX100 II ● £749 ● www.panasonic.com/uk A high-end compact for creative photography, the LX100 II is based around a 24-75mm equivalent f/1.7-2.8 lens and a 17MP Four Thirds sensor that features a true multi aspect-ratio design. It also boasts a full range of traditional analogue control dials, and the corner-mounted viewfinder is complemented by touchscreen LCD. ★★★★…

Royal Proclamation by Stringer The proclamation of the ascension of Queen Elizabeth II to the throne is read at the Royal Exchange in London on 6 February 1952. Elizabeth’s father, King George VI, had died in the early hours of that morning, while the princess was visiting Kenya. Elizabeth was 25 years old when she came to the throne, with this year marking 70 years on the throne – her Platinum Jubilee. The Getty Images Hulton Archive is one of the world’s great cultural resources. Tracing its origins to the founding of the London Stereoscopic Company in 1854, today it houses over 80 million images spanning the birth of photography to the digital age. Explore it at www.gettyimages.com.…

IMAGING accessory maker JOBY has launched the Spin head and Swing slider (both shown above) for shooting video and stills and has added five new microphones. The £81.95 Spin is a Bluetooth electronic head that gives 360° motion control for shooting panoramic stills, timelapses and video. Meanwhile, the £118.95 Swing is a Bluetooth electronic slider that works with Apple and Android phones and can help to shoot videos and moving timelapses. The refreshed microphone range – aimed at filmmakers, vloggers and content streamers – includes the flagship Wavo PRO, the Wavo Pro DS, the Wavo AIR, the Wavo POD and the Wavo Lav PRO.…

8 February 1922 100 years ago this week AP was preoccupied with the practical problems of living in hard water areas. The Reverend St John wrote of his repeated failures with the carbro process at his Herefordshire home. ‘I had almost given up the carbro process in despair when I decided to give it a trial in Manchester, where the water is soft, with the result that I have been able to get a perfect carbro every time, provided that the bromide print used was also made in Manchester. Meanwhile AP’s weekly columnist, The Walrus, discussed a suggested cure for another problem associated with hard water: removing scum from negatives. ‘Some of these old photographers are a weird lot, and I am not surprised to hear that the advice was…

THE FUJIFILM X-T30 Mark II may not seem like much of an update when compared to the original X-T30, and whilst that may be true, it doesn’t stop it from being an excellent camera. The X-T30 was, and still is, a great camera, and similarly, the X-T30 Mark II is also a great choice. Slightly improved over the original, but with a lower price point, the X-T30 II would make a great mirrorless camera for those people who are looking for excellent image quality in a compact and portable body. The camera provides no limitations in the quality of images you can get from the camera, and it can be used by novice photographers, as well as those who are more advanced. Probably the main competitor to the X-T30 II…

● €109.95 (around £91.95) ● photographygloves.com IT DOESN’T take long for a biting winter wind to make your fingers feel like blocks of ice when you’re holding a camera. While good gloves can help, mittens are a much better way of keeping your digits toasty. The only problem is that standard mittens are very restrictive, so you can’t adjust the camera settings or even press the shutter release easily. Vallerret’s Skadi Zipper Mitts PSPs, however, are far from standard mittens, because they have a zip around the tip of the finger section to open the mitt and let you get your fingers onto your camera. The zip can be opened to free your fingers while still giving them some shelter, or alternatively the mitt can be pulled back and held…

This image is one of 12 series of powerful photographs by 13 international photographers exploring the topical theme of ‘fire’ and was presented in the exhibition ‘Prix Pictet: Fire’ at the V&A and in the accompanying book (ISBN: 9783961713660, publisher TeNeues). It stood out for me for a number of reasons. The first, and by far the most important to me, being that the composition is absolutely gorgeous. It does this old photographer’s heart good that this is the first thing I noticed as, so often in the world of contemporary and conceptual photography these days, the basics of photography, the building blocks I grew up with that formed me as a photographer and made me the photographer I am today are overlooked at the expense of a sometimes difficult-to-grasp…

AP picture of the week Sunrise on Cloud 9 by Claire Macdonald Nikon D7200, 24-120mm lens, 1/200sec at f/7.1, ISO 800 ‘As part of my nautical course we learn a lot about meteorology and reading surface pressure charts. Myself and one of my classmates love hiking and we saw that the weekend was giving us some high pressure and not much wind so we decided on an easy Ben Aan for sunrise,’ says Claire, who is studying at City of Glasgow Nautical College to be a deck officer. ‘We set off in thick fog and darkness but this started to drift behind us as we got higher. We arrived at the top at 8am to see the most stunning cloud inversion. The glow from the sunrise made it feel like…

NEW RESEARCH commissioned by Fujifilm has revealed that 18-24-year-olds are Britain’s biggest photo hoarders, on average hoarding between 3,000 and 5,000 images each in their smartphone camera rolls, totalling a national average of around 10 billion photos. Over a third, 37% of all 18-24-year-olds surveyed said they’ve been more conscious about preserving their memories since the arrival of the Covid pandemic. A third of all adults in the UK say returning to old photos makes them feel happier, more relaxed and even more loved. Some British people admit they’re paying up to £5 a month for extra storage for their photos – this totals a national average of £300million spend per annum to add extra data for image storage. OnePoll conducted the survey of 2,000 adults in mid-January 2022.…

We’ve all read articles about the ‘rules’ of composition: fill the frame with your subject, direct the eye with leading lines, stick to the rule of thirds etc. Most of the time these rules work wonders, but successful pictures are a result of technical ability and creative input, and following the rules too slavishly can sometimes lead to predictable, routine results. One of the rules that painters, designers and photographers often follow encourages us to use an odd number of elements in the frame (often three). The theory goes that the human brain likes to group and organise objects in order to make sense of them quickly. When we include an even number of elements in the frame the brain has to decide which to look at first and the…

Camo nets Camouflage netting comes in very useful if you want to conceal your camera or string a net across a shed door or between canes to create a screen from which you can sit behind. Wireless trigger By setting your camera up on a tripod you can then fire the camera remotely in the garden while you stay in the warmth of your house. This is a good workaround if finding somewhere in the garden to hide away or shooting from the house is not feasible. Flex arm with spring clamp A very useful gadget for fixing to a pole or other upright to hold an attractive perch in place in a specific spot either for birds to perch on or to add decoration to part of the frame.…